A few months ago I read about this TV Show that I had never heard of in Entertainment weekly, and to which they called it the best show on TV. That caught me offguard, best show? Never heard of it? Its on HBO, but still…

Anyhow I downloaded Season 1, it started off slow and dreary. At first glance its the classic archetypical homicide investigation show, I wondered why the fuss but after watching Season 1 I started to dig it. Its a little different as face of crime is blurred as anti-heros emerge, rather than tossing aside a case and a murder a day, the criminals get a face, and human one at that. The cops aren’t always good and the cops who have a pension for doing what is right don’t always get rewarded, while crimes occur, the course of the show follows one major case and the politics behind it all.

It has little remorse for the viewer, rarely is everything completely said. Its easy to draw the Sopranos connection but its unlike the Sopranos.  Sopranos was a collection myriad of unfinished stories and focus of banality of life, where the show’s own obsession with “real life” in rather ludicrous non-real life situations without any coherent direction delivered a show about nothing and was meaningless.  Where Sopranos failed, The Wire succeeds. The bits serve purpose and even when the viewer is in the dark, generally the light is shed. At the moment of delivery it might be hard to follow but in hindsight it makes coherent sense and remains true to its focus on real life.

So anyhow if you don’t feel like reading my rambling, read the reviews of Season 4.
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/wireseason4

i’m glad someone made a thread about the Wire, it is probably my favourite show on TV at the moment. what I love about it is it’s realism, it’s hard to watch any other cop drama now without poking holes in it or finding it pretty ridiculous. characters that you become attached to can get killed at any moment without any dramatic build up and music is not needed to make any scene stronger (one scene at the end of season 1 was one of the darkest i’ve seen on TV), the only music you’ll hear is either from a car driving past or someone hi-fi. can’t wait for season 5, it’s meant to cover the media of Baltimore and is the last one I think they’re doing.

I’ve heard from a few people that it’s great.  One of these days I’ll get around to watching the DVDs.

Yeah, I just finished Season 2 and Season 3 is chugging away, only a quarter downloaded. One of the best characters Omar, I’d have to say is rather odd mix of non-stereotypical traits. I like how gritty and straight up the show is without really ever showing much violence, and when the violence happens, often its off screen. You’re left to fill in the blanks until the story comes back around.

I’d say the writing is up there with any of the “serial” shows as they’re being called (like Lost, Heroes, 24, first two seasons of Veronica Mars). I’d say its easily the best cop show I’ve ever watched. Baltimore makes for an exciting backdrop of urban decay.

Man, finished Season 3 (short seasons). The show really breathes life into the city of Baltimore, so much so that it becomes a character every bit as central as the people who inhabit it. I don’t think any TV show has ever had such heartfelt depiction of a city.

There’s some interesting issues that are tackled, such as the death of the working class, the unchanging state of crime and the painful toll of death and violence that the drug trade causes. There’s rarely a moment of dragging feet. At first it might seem like the agendas meanders but the hard lined illustration of urban decay, pushes rather than left or right wing politics for social welfare. What’s interesting is how logical the issues solutions are approached.

After burning through 3 seasons already, it’s the best full out drama I’ve seen that comes to mind. I’d rank it well above Sopranos and beyond Rome. The beauty of the show is the writing, its hardly predictable, without ever sacrificing integrity to add in unexpected twists.

I have to say, rarely does TV really hit home on such vivid social commentary.

Having just returned from installing a museum exhibit about the ‘67 riots down in Newark, NJ, this sort of thing is vivid in my mind. I spent a month researching the story behind and subsequently watching hours of black and white footage of what happened in Newark and LA and Detroit and the dozens of other cities that were engulfed in violence in the mid- to late-1960s. Urban decay, unrest, bad housing, etc. is scary and volatile stuff.